Kevin's Watch

Bannor wrote:I have an oscar (fish for the uninitiated) whom I named Luthien. I tried several male oscars (named Beren I, II, III), but Luthien killed each suitor. Now, she just swims around waiting to be fed.

Quite a twist to that story.

I was thinking from the Luthien - Beren angle.

Well, I think I would not provide her with anymore suitors.

And, Syl, I was glad to hear last night that you will be getting your Freya back, and two buddies for her, besides.

well yes .. but she will insist upon eating them!! lol ..

I had 43 mice about 10 years ago (really fancy mice, blue and chocholate siameese color point), but then I got allergic to mice (and rats)

I have always had cats around as well. My childhood cat , Misär (=Misery) was all white (not deaf) and lived until he was 18 years old. My second cat was Tussan, grey whith white chin, she is now 13 years old and live with my parents. My third cat, Vanya, a grey lady, was only there for me for one year before she disappeared (I cried my eyes out, it is horrible not to know what has happened to her, still this day). My "present cat" is Lómë Luín (Blue Dusk in Quenya), a beautiful russian blue lady (all gray with green eyes). I wonder if I can paste a picture here?

Nope, didn´t work.

If you want to see her, you can find a picture at her former owners site:
user.tninet.se/~lxr006u/isadorasald.html[/url]

When I was growing up I had 24 cats at one time, various other amounts of cats on other years. I've had horses (my favorite animals), dogs, hamsters, mice, rabbits, and evil chickens. Currently, however, I have three cats (my second favorite animal): Treat, Oreo, and Mischief. Oreo is approx. 4 months old now, Treat is 6 months old, and Mischief is 3 years old. None of them are related. I rescued all of them, at different times and in different places. I simply cannot live without pets!!!!!

i want a ferret, but i simply dont have time... between college and being goofy here

I've had dogs and I've had cats in my childhood years. Had a totally black long haired cat that was simply gorgeous to look at. He ran off...(ah well).
I've had Snakes Three at one time. A 5 ft long Ball Python, a Gopher snake about 4-5 feet long and for a short while an extremely rare ring necked snake with no ring. Found it out in the wild (in a cave) and took it over to a biologist at BYU and he freaked out saying that they hunted for this animal for years and couldn't find one...something about it's location in Utah was disputed by other snake-scientist for years and I just now proved them all wrong.
All snakes had to be given away at one point because of personal life uhh, circumstances.
I'm babysitting a pair of Malamutes/wolf hybrids that are brothers, 10 years old. The three of us get together and sing (howl) every now and again just so they get that pack feeling in their blood going.

Over the years, our family had dogs called Snifter, Taffy, Danny and Bo, and cats called Tiger, Jenny and Monty. Also a cockatoo called Cocky. Greyhounds but can't remember their names, chooks ... and a rock that looked like a duck.

Haven't had a pet for 15 years.

Ylva Kresh wrote:I had 43 mice about 10 years ago (really fancy mice, blue and chocholate siameese color point), but then I got allergic to mice (and rats)
I have always had cats around as well. My childhood cat , Misär (=Misery) was all white (not deaf) and lived until he was 18 years old. My second cat was Tussan, grey whith white chin, she is now 13 years old and live with my parents. My third cat, Vanya, a grey lady, was only there for me for one year before she disappeared (I cried my eyes out, it is horrible not to know what has happened to her, still this day). My "present cat" is Lómë Luín (Blue Dusk in Quenya), a beautiful russian blue lady (all gray with green eyes). I wonder if I can paste a picture here?

What a pretty kitty you have I used to be a cat fancier myself when I was younger until I got a cat and my allergies put me through hell (my mom still takes care of her for me)so I turned to more exotic pets. I had a rat named Krishna but I decided to give her up before moving north for awhile. She was an excellent pet and I hope to get another some day. I had reptiles and fish and other rodents also. but my favorite are the ferrets.

Now we have Mojo and Freya. Mojo is an old man ferret but he is still very spunky and can jump higher than any I've seen. Freya is definately more mellow since Monty died but she still seems content. Especially since we got Mojo to keep her company.

Allergies are very bad things Stupid flawed bodies - why do they protest against lovely animals this way???

I just had a scare today... We have two cats, muck and lulu, brother and sister. Well, I let them out last night and since we've only lived here a couple months I still worry a little bit.
This morning no lulu! It was quite chilly and she's the type of cat that needs to be let in to use the bathroom so I was surprised she wasn't around. I looked around the neighborhood a little bit, had to go to work, and worried all day - when I got home and she still wasn't around I really started to worry!
So I search the neighborhood again expecting the worst, and when I'm back to the (unoccupied) house next door, I look and there's lulu, in the window, meowing vigorously, but silently! (from my perspective) She climbed in through the dryer vent and couldn't get out!
I was so happy to see her!
I called the Realtor, whose number was on the sign in front, he gave me the combination of the lock box, and I went in and collected a very dirty, tired, but now happy lulu!

We haven't clipped my parrots feathers in awhile so she can fly really well and goes from the cage in the office to the one in the kitchen as she pleases... Well we are remodeling the kitchen and the doors were open and there was no Gryphon to be found anywhere, but there was a little Gryphon poop on the back porch! We all frantically started calling for her and whistling. After a while we gave up and came back in, there she was walking around in the pantry! I was soooo relieved...

Dromond, glad to hear your cat was safe. I always worry about mine getting out, even though she seems to have little inclination to do so.

Ylva Kresh wrote:Allergies are very bad things Stupid flawed bodies - why do they protest against lovely animals this way???

One theory is that humans are not meant to live in that close contact with animals. Another is that it is because we overload our immune systems by getting in touch with lots of different substances.

Ryzel wrote:One theory is that humans are not meant to live in that close contact with animals.

That made me think of that story out of Alaska a couple of weeks ago. That fellow, who thought that bears were harmless, probably should have thought about that before him and his girlfriend were mauled to death by a bear. My dad told me, after that sad news came out, that maybe he wanted to live with the bears, but the bears didn't want to live with him.

true

and isnt it so often the case? we want to live and cuddle these awesome creatures believing we are soo clued in .. but what of their feelings on the matter?? lol

Ryzel wrote:

One theory is that humans are not meant to live in that close contact with animals. Another is that it is because we overload our immune systems by getting in touch with lots of different substances.

On the other hand man has had domesticated animals for over 10 000 years and those really sensitive to this (people commoly lived in the same house or very close to the animals) probably died at an early age and did not reproduce. There are many theories regarding why some people get allergic and others dont. There is also the opposite of the theory above: if you do not prepare your immune system or "keep your immune system busy" you will more easily get allergies - the immune system has nothing to do and will turn on "the first thing it sees". To live in a "super-clean" world practically without germs, dust and such cannot be regarded as a normal condition for the immune system. The houses in cold countries are much more insulated and with less un-forced ventilation, this has been suspected to give rise to allergies (no fresh air and an accumulation of possible allergens). A recent study comparing people living with or without pets did not confirm that living without pets resulted in a lower frequency of allergies, almost the contrary if I remember correctly. There is also the theory that "over-vaccination" may result in allergies, I dont think this has been proven either. Facts however: people in sweden has a lot more allergies than people in the baltic countries. Why???

More and more people are allergic to nuts and gluten. You can hardly have a party without making a "allergy-cake" (a cake that all the allergic people can eat).